I've been using a PowerShot S30 for last 2.5 years and am extremely satisfied with it in every way... just wished it had a larger zoom sometimes. When I saw S1 IS, it seems like exactly what I needed, an S30 with a 10x zoom with IS and AA batteries. Bought online for $400. Thanks Canon for providing a separate "SET" button. Image Quality is very good HOWEVER S1 images have more noise. If S1 is your only digital camera, you may not notice it but if you have something to compare it with (like S30), you will see this right away. Its movie mode produces very high quality movies but with a catch - they are huge in file size.
On the plus side (beside 10x Zoom / IS / quality Movie mode):
(1) Size: For such a feature-ridden camera with 10x optical zoom, impressively compact.
(2) Extremely well built: Looks like its all metal though its plastic. Feels excellent in hand. Buttons are not cluttred or too small (though MENU button is badly placed), have good "feel" when pressed. Looks like a much more expensive camera.
(3) Ease of Use: it is very easy to use even for starters, just put it in AUTO mode and point-and-shoot.
(4) Full-featured: Nearly every feature that is available on any high-end camera these days - save for focus assist lamp and night framing/shooting.
(5) Suits everyone: Goes all the way from fully automatic to fully manual - grows with you as you go from a beginner to a pro.
(6) Long life AA batteries: Uses standard AA batteries! I would highly recommend getting rechargable NiMH and a charger. The camera just keeps going and going and going for 2+ weeks on a single set of Panasonic 1900mAH NiMH batteries (Sorry Energizer)
(7) Uses Compact Flash card/MicroDrives: Available in higher capacities and are cheaper than other format cards. Also are not too tiny to be easily broken or lost compared with others.
(8) Lens cover is not too tight so if you turn on the camera forgetting the cover is on the lens, the lens will dislodge it and extend easily and not be damaged. There is also a minus point for this... see #8 below
(9) SLR-Like viewfinder w/Tilting & Twisting LCD: Has Electronic View Finder (EVF) with diopter adjustment for people who needs glasses. The EVF is of very high quality and can be relied upon totally as it provides all information that is displayed in LCD. The LCD, however small, tilts and twists though most of the time you will use it in "standard" back of the camera position.
Problems:
These are not serious problems that renders camera unusable, just some realistic downsides of S1 IS:
(1) NOISE: Produce more noisy images in low light and i am not talking about VERY LOW light here, just any room with regular tungsten lamps at evening will end up being more noisy compared with S30. You will notice this with Movies much more because in movie mode the camera does not has the advantage of extra light from flash.
(2) Poor AutoFocus/No Focus Assist Lamp: Camera fails to auto-focus in low light due to no focus assist lamp. You can use manual focus by using the "P" mode but even that is harder because of...
(3) Small Screen: the 1.5" LCD is small and you feel it from time to time, wishing it was at least a 2". This worsen the issue of auto-focus failure because then to use manual focus you have to use the screen and it is just not big enough to give you a clear picture whether the subject is in sharp focus or not.
(4) Movie Size: Sure it produces 640x480 30fps movies with Zoom enabled BUT a 30 second clip is about 80MB. Also you CAN NOT shoot an hour-long 640x480 (miniDV like) movie because camera will stop after movie size reaches 1GB which will be about 6 minutes at this quality. Thus even if you have a 4GB Microdrive, you can only capture four 6 minutes clips at miniDV quality. The camera does came with video editing software for PC that allow you to process video clips and resize them and drop frame rate to make resulting file smaller but you end up with ... a movie clip captured with any other digicam, for instance an S30!
(5) Image Stabilization - Separating Myth from reality: Good news: The IS works! - The Bad news: it only corrects very slight/minor shakes. Thus if you have shaky hands like mine, even the IS can't produce blur-free images. You still have to hold the camera as still as you can and IS will help to correct very slight vibrations that will happen anyway. NOTE: To shoot panning movie clips, turn IS off your movie seems to "jump" while panning.
(6) Button Placement: Its great to have such a sophisticated camera this small BUT Canon should have put more thought into button placement. You will frequently hit the MENU button while trying to hold camera in the right hand which is annoying and may be the sole cause of you missing the right shot at right time.
(7) Does not comes with a case
The PSC70 case (about $30 online) is very nice and should come standard with the camera. Though this case is good but is for camera only, if you need to carry other accessories like extra batteries, cleaning kits etc, they will not fit in here.
(8) Lens cover is not tight enough - Though it does not keep coming off but comes off while taking out/putting into the case. There is also a plus side of this... see point # 8 in PLUSES above.
On the plus side (beside 10x Zoom / IS / quality Movie mode):
(1) Size: For such a feature-ridden camera with 10x optical zoom, impressively compact.
(2) Extremely well built: Looks like its all metal though its plastic. Feels excellent in hand. Buttons are not cluttred or too small (though MENU button is badly placed), have good "feel" when pressed. Looks like a much more expensive camera.
(3) Ease of Use: it is very easy to use even for starters, just put it in AUTO mode and point-and-shoot.
(4) Full-featured: Nearly every feature that is available on any high-end camera these days - save for focus assist lamp and night framing/shooting.
(5) Suits everyone: Goes all the way from fully automatic to fully manual - grows with you as you go from a beginner to a pro.
(6) Long life AA batteries: Uses standard AA batteries! I would highly recommend getting rechargable NiMH and a charger. The camera just keeps going and going and going for 2+ weeks on a single set of Panasonic 1900mAH NiMH batteries (Sorry Energizer)
(7) Uses Compact Flash card/MicroDrives: Available in higher capacities and are cheaper than other format cards. Also are not too tiny to be easily broken or lost compared with others.
(8) Lens cover is not too tight so if you turn on the camera forgetting the cover is on the lens, the lens will dislodge it and extend easily and not be damaged. There is also a minus point for this... see #8 below
(9) SLR-Like viewfinder w/Tilting & Twisting LCD: Has Electronic View Finder (EVF) with diopter adjustment for people who needs glasses. The EVF is of very high quality and can be relied upon totally as it provides all information that is displayed in LCD. The LCD, however small, tilts and twists though most of the time you will use it in "standard" back of the camera position.
Problems:
These are not serious problems that renders camera unusable, just some realistic downsides of S1 IS:
(1) NOISE: Produce more noisy images in low light and i am not talking about VERY LOW light here, just any room with regular tungsten lamps at evening will end up being more noisy compared with S30. You will notice this with Movies much more because in movie mode the camera does not has the advantage of extra light from flash.
(2) Poor AutoFocus/No Focus Assist Lamp: Camera fails to auto-focus in low light due to no focus assist lamp. You can use manual focus by using the "P" mode but even that is harder because of...
(3) Small Screen: the 1.5" LCD is small and you feel it from time to time, wishing it was at least a 2". This worsen the issue of auto-focus failure because then to use manual focus you have to use the screen and it is just not big enough to give you a clear picture whether the subject is in sharp focus or not.
(4) Movie Size: Sure it produces 640x480 30fps movies with Zoom enabled BUT a 30 second clip is about 80MB. Also you CAN NOT shoot an hour-long 640x480 (miniDV like) movie because camera will stop after movie size reaches 1GB which will be about 6 minutes at this quality. Thus even if you have a 4GB Microdrive, you can only capture four 6 minutes clips at miniDV quality. The camera does came with video editing software for PC that allow you to process video clips and resize them and drop frame rate to make resulting file smaller but you end up with ... a movie clip captured with any other digicam, for instance an S30!
(5) Image Stabilization - Separating Myth from reality: Good news: The IS works! - The Bad news: it only corrects very slight/minor shakes. Thus if you have shaky hands like mine, even the IS can't produce blur-free images. You still have to hold the camera as still as you can and IS will help to correct very slight vibrations that will happen anyway. NOTE: To shoot panning movie clips, turn IS off your movie seems to "jump" while panning.
(6) Button Placement: Its great to have such a sophisticated camera this small BUT Canon should have put more thought into button placement. You will frequently hit the MENU button while trying to hold camera in the right hand which is annoying and may be the sole cause of you missing the right shot at right time.
(7) Does not comes with a case
The PSC70 case (about $30 online) is very nice and should come standard with the camera. Though this case is good but is for camera only, if you need to carry other accessories like extra batteries, cleaning kits etc, they will not fit in here.(8) Lens cover is not tight enough - Though it does not keep coming off but comes off while taking out/putting into the case. There is also a plus side of this... see point # 8 in PLUSES above.